Bridgeport fine feed wheel?????

OK guys got a 2hp j head bridgeport. My question is what holds the fine feed wheel on the machine. There is a pin on the wheel which engages into a hole so the wheel can function but what keeps it on the machine from falling off, surely bridgeport had some type of nut or something to keep in on the mill.

OK guys got a 2hp j head bridgeport. My question is what holds the fine feed wheel on the machine. There is a pin on the wheel which engages into a hole so the wheel can function but what keeps it on the machine from falling off, surely bridgeport had some type of nut or something to keep in on the mill.

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Nothing on mine. The hand wheel just slides on there. It's fallen out on me, once or twice, if theres too much vibration.

CHUCK--attached is a picture of the parts in your quill housing. as others have noted --don't see any hardware holding wheel in place. by nature they are removed and ''lost'' somewhere in the shop-lol. they just seem to disappear. i did not get one with my old b.p. and would really like to have one. anyway here is parts breakdown --sure hope it helps u and others. re steve in mt.

CHUCK--attached is a picture of the parts in your quill housing. as others have noted --don't see any hardware holding wheel in place. by nature they are removed and ''lost'' somewhere in the shop-lol. they just seem to disappear. i did not get one with my old b.p. and would really like to have one. anyway here is parts breakdown --sure hope it helps u and others. re steve in mt.

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My fine feed wheel is held on with that knurled screw deal. You have to remove it to remove the wheel. The wheel will not slide over this part. Or at least thats how it came to me. Soon as my phone charges I will take a pic

Randy I have removed it and tried to fit it through the wheel 3 times just to make sure. Mine dont slide over it. It will slide up to about the knurl from either direction. Maybe we should add that to the list of things to buy, just to be sure it's the right parts I guess.

It has enough room to back the pin out so the wheel can free spin, but it wont pull off with out removing it.

I dont know if it was made this way or made to be this way. All the BP and clones at school the wheels just slide off. Heck I dont even know where any of them are. Maybe someone at some point made there own knurled end so the handle would stay on.

B'port ignorance on display here but what purpose is served by having the fine feed wheel be removable?

On my Gorton mills the fine feed wheel is bolted to the downfeed gearbox.

Is the wheel in the way of something on a B'port?

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The easy removal of the fine feed wheel is just a convenience as it does sometimes get in the way. They probably first engineered it as none removeable and found they could easily make convenient to remove. Bear in mind this is all speculation on my part.

If you have one of those accessory z axis digital readouts attached to the head. And attached like the instructions say to do it. You have to remove that hand wheel! I’m still amazed that after all these years of poor design that no manufacture has fixed it so you can have the digital z readout and the handwheel too. And yes, my BP has the knurled reverse switch and the handwheel just slides on and off.

If you have one of those accessory z axis digital readouts attached to the head. And attached like the instructions say to do it. You have to remove that hand wheel! I’m still amazed that after all these years of poor design that no manufacture has fixed it so you can have the digital z readout and the handwheel too. And yes, my BP has the knurled reverse switch and the handwheel just slides on and off.

I think the reason Bridgeport leaves there fine feed wheel with the remove ability. Is when using the power feed they don't knock you fingers into broken digits. Just my thoughts on them . I use to just pull them free of the pin hole and use the feed. But I can see some dingbat leaning hand and it catching on something.